Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
289 pages
Published 1997
Read from June 2 to June 3
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
In
the context of a wider tragedy, one that resulted in a dozen deaths and
the maiming of several others, is it unseemly for an author -- a person
who escaped the disaster without physical harm -- to focus so much
attention on his own sense of survivor's guilt and mental trauma? I get
why Krakauer, as a journalist, felt he needed to incorporate the
criticisms he received from family members of those who died in the 1996
Everest disaster, but presenting excerpts from survivors' letters after
several pages describing his own PTSD fugue, his broken sobs and a
night strung out on street hashish in Kathmandu -- it all starts to feel a
bit like conspicuous contrition. Sure, Krakauer's account of his grief
and shellshock is moving (he can be a powerful writer when he isn't
listing times and facts dispassionately, as he does in the main disaster
account), but is it entirely appropriate?
Well, the subtitle makes it clear this is meant as a personal
account, and Krakauer does address the propriety of his catharsis in
the introduction, so at least you know he's aware of the issue. I can't
settle on an opinion myself. Not that it particularly matters; it was
simply the angle that jutted out at me as I finished this read.
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